Suspected dengue outbreak at Srilankan Tamils rehabilitation camp in Tenkasi

A medical camp being held at the Sri Lankan Tamils rehabilitation camp at Boganallur in Tenkasi district. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

After residents of the camp alleged that the teenage girl died due to dengue, and more than 50 others were battling fever with similar symptoms, the Department of Public Health organised a medical camp in Boganallur camp. Sanitary workers too are clearing garbage and discarded articles to destroy mosquito breeding grounds.

“While residents of the camp attribute the death of the girl to dengue and term the 50-odd fever cases as ‘dengue outbreak’, there is no credible evidence to prove their anxiety. We could not see within the camp the mosquitoes that spread dengue. Even then, the medical camp is being organised while the local body is carrying out sanitary operations,” said a department official.

However, the panic-stricken residents want the administration to hold regular medical camps while ensuring proper removal of garbage from the rehabilitation camp.

“While Tenkasi and Kadayanallur municipalities heap the garbage generated in their areas near Boganallur, the rehabilitation camp is in disarray. The poultry farms, meat stalls and fish markets dump their waste near our colony. Stray dogs are caught and released near the garbage yard and the animals additionally enter the rehabilitation camp,” said Kamalaveni, a resident of the camp.

“With the garbage yard providing a breeding ground for houseflies, the insanitary conditions prevailing inside the camp make things worse. Our complaints to officials are ignored as they treat us as citizens of some other country,” she went on.